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Next Gen Consoles and Rising Technology

January 16, 2012

CES came and went this past week. Wii U was shown off along with 4K and 8K TVs! What am I talking? Read on to find out.

For those of you that don’t know, CES is the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s a place where companies show off their newest or coolest technology. It could be upcoming TVs, computers, cameras, or video game systems. Not long ago, there were rumors that the Next Xbox (NeXbox is what I say) would be shown off at CES to make way for a 2012 holiday release. Luckily, this was not the case. Many were thinking this because the Wii U was announced last year at E3 and it said it would be more powerful than the PS3 or Xbox 360. Details are still scarce, but it’s said to run games at full 1080p.

The Wii U is finally playing catch up and may release games that will also release on 360 and PS3, but is it too little too late? I think it’s more like catching up and forcing others to go further. The 360 and PS3 were supposed to be around for a few more years to come. Now that the next gen of Nintendo will be arriving this year, Microsoft and Sony will start working on their new systems and may release info at E3 this year. Yes, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are a bit dated now when compared to top of the line PCs, but they’re still just fine in the console market, given many games are barely using the full power of the PS3 and 360.

With new technology comes a hefty price tag. Don’t forget, many top of the line PCs cost more than either the PS3 and Xbox 360 for the graphics card alone. The Wii U still doesn’t have a price tag, and what will the PS4 and NeXbox bring? I wonder if they’ll be big and generate a ton of heat too like the first models of the PS3 and 360. I hope the PS4 and NeXbox have cutting edge technology. Lets hope Microsoft goes at least with Blu Ray discs and both have the option for 4k and 8k resolutions.

What are 4k and 8k resolutions you ask? That’s another thing that was shown at CES this year. Actually, this technology has been around for a while now, but it was shown or became available in other countries first. 4K and 8K are higher resolutions over 1080p HDTVs. HDTVs have either 1280×720 pixels (720p) or 1920×1080 pixels (1080p) in the entire screen. These TVs are pushing the envelope with 3840×2160 pixels (4k) and 7680×4320 pixels (8k) on their screens! The more pixels, the more quality of the picture they can pack in on the screen. Of course, you may only notice all the detail in bigger screen TVs. The first 8K TV was shown in May of last year. The TV was made by Sharp.

Obviously, these TVs will be way too expensive for the time being. The 55 inch 4K model shown at CES will be available to North America within three months. It will also have glasses free 3D capabilities and cost a whopping $10,000! Who knows how the 8K TV will be whenever it releases to the public. You can find a few 4K videos on youtube now, but your screen won’t be able to show the full effect, obviously.

With higher resolutions, I believe the next generation of consoles should have the ability to reach up to 8K. There have been a few rumors that the PS4 will aim for that, but who knows? When making consoles, they need to plan ahead at least a decade, which is very hard seeing as how fast technology grows. Not only will it be hard, but it will be expensive. They may pay high dollar for this new technology, but not many people will buy their systems since the price tag will be high as well. Same thing happened with the PS3 when it first released. Their processor was very high priced which made the PS3 high priced. There weren’t very many game companies that wanted to make games using the PS3’s processor since it was hard to use – or so I hear. Many games on the PS3 and Xbox 360 were made for the 360 and ported to the PS3, so the PS3’s processor wasn’t fully used until recently with games like Uncharted 3. Sony was losing a ton of money since nobody was buying their console, even though it was a lower price than they wanted ($600). They had to lower the price even more and make more games before people started buying.

Will it be the same song and dance for the next gen? How about movies? Will Sony’s PS4 still use Blu Rays or go the next step up with a new format for even higher resolution? I’ve heard talk about the next step up in discs called the Holographic Versatile Disc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc It has the ability to hold 8 TB of data. This will probably be a must for 8K resolution movies and the such. I’m not sure who will use this or when they will, but all this technology is very exciting to me!

I can’t say for sure what Sony and Microsoft will bring to the table, but I know I should be saving up my money for all these high priced items. I still have to get a 3DS and save for a Wii U later this year. I will be getting a PS Vita, so I won’t have to wait too long for exciting new technology. I have yet to see anything in 3D, so I’m excited for the 3DS too.

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